The Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

By: Shahid Mukhtar 

The western honey bee is the commonest honey bee in the world. This honey bee is present in the entire subcontinents but not found in Antarctica due to weather differences. The western honey bee has much social importance.  They live together in groups. There is a queen female that is fertile and produces offspring, and there are thousands of infertile females that are unable to produce offspring but are good workers. And there are haploid males that are non-workers and termed drones.

The western honey bee is very important in pollination; carry pollen grains from the anther to the stigma. The flora biodiversity is due to bee pollination. Albert Einstein stated that if there are no bees in the biosphere then the entire human beings will finish from the world due to lack of pollination.

 Unfortunately, the specie of the western honey bee is declining day by day. Human activities are a major cause of the declining honey bee specie. Such as the varroa mite parasite attacks on the honey bee and feeds on them. Varroa mite also causes disease in the bees as destroys the wings of bees. Many farmers repeat their crops on the land so this decreases the balanced diet of honey bees which causes population decline. Much of the population is destroyed by pesticides sprayed on crops.

So we should carry a number of steps to minimize population reduction. We should not use pesticides chemical. We should not use inorganic pesticides and prefer manure and compost. We should use a bee bath so all the bees would travel to the bath, and then apply the spray on the crop. We should plant a bee-attractive garden so they breed here and maximize their population.

Reference:

De la Rúa, P., Paxton et al (2014). "Apis mellifera"

 Michael S. Engel (1999). "The taxonomy 

 Mortensen et al (August 2013). "European honey bee"